as in dialect
Related Words
Relevance
Example Sentences
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
show current usage.
Read More
Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors.
Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of idiolect
In this way, the Delta method captures features that vary according to their authors’ idiolects.
—
Karolina Rudnicka, Scientific American, 9 July 2025
Attackers can mimic the distinct idiolect of the target.
—Dan Goodin, Ars Technica, 18 Nov. 2023
Butler appears to have picked up Elvis’s idiolect, Howell says.
—Erica Sweeney, Men's Health, 8 Feb. 2023
Sherif’s music exists in the space between autobiographical and his own idiolect.
—Jayson Buford, Rolling Stone, 3 June 2022
And then there’s his inborn ear for every shade of human babble, here a transcendent four-hander, there a screwball travelogue, everywhere argot and idiolect and argument.
—New York Times, 23 Apr. 2020
His writing conveys an extraordinary ear for accent, rhythm, and idiolect.
—Maya Jasanoff, The New Republic, 22 Aug. 2019
Kathleen is relentlessly animated and quick-witted, with thick tangerine hair, steely eyes, and an endearing personal idiolect that suggests both an autodidactic reading in philosophy and economics and the gusty crudity of the merchant marine.
—Gideon Lewis-Kraus, WIRED, 18 June 2018
Recent Examples of Synonyms for idiolect
Noun
-
Though the Norn language has gone, the local dialect remains distinctive, as fans of the BBC detective show Shetland will know.—
-
Language classes, which previously covered only a specific dialect of Spanish, have been replaced with robust translation and interpretation services that apply to multiple languages.—
Noun
-
There’s this Douglas Adams joke that in no language is there the idiom as pretty as an airport.—
-
As a substitute, the board selected local architect William Pereira, who, never fully at ease with a modernist idiom, hewed to the middlebrow tastes and conservative politics of California’s philanthropic parvenus.—
Noun
-
The filles, mostly from larger cities, arrived with their own urban argots.—
-
The basic technology is complicated enough, but the subculture—with its own particular argot and decorum—is what’s truly forbidding.—
Noun
-
The speed at which Gen Alpha has been churning out new, often nonsensical, slang has been fast and furious throughout 2025.—
-
What other slang does Gen Alpha use?—
Noun
-
Elliott spits her verses in patois, freeing up space on the track for the drums to get some before Cartel and M.I.A. slide through. 41.—
-
And so there’s West Indian patois and language and music and food.—
Noun
-
Now, Strauss is letting people in on what that reality truly looks like, beyond the medical jargon and the milestone charts.—
-
Advocacy isn’t about mastering policy jargon or tracking every bill.—
Noun
-
While the bungalows tap into the regional design vernacular, the decor still feels modern and clean-lined.—
-
The Upside Down, a dark, gooey parallel universe of Hawkins, and its predatory demogorgons became part of their middle school vernacular.—
Noun
-
In football parlance, Indiana fumbled the bag.—
-
It was once said, for instance, that Disney’s cast members — staff, in park parlance — would be able to recognize if someone’s personality leaned resistance, First Order or rogue.—
Cite this Entry
“Idiolect.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/idiolect. Accessed 19 Jan. 2026.
Love words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
